Spirit

I have been off the water for a week. On the York boat, I spent about a week’s time continuously in nature, and this just reminded me of an inspiration I had about few weeks ago: spending time in nature is the cure for mental illness.

We humans are complex beings. Putting ourselves in boxes — apartments, condos, office buildings, skyscrapers — is simply not a good way to treat such amazing, creative beings. It is akin to putting wild animals in zoos or fish in aquariums. They are neither happy nor healthy — they need stimulation, territory to roam, prey to chase and the world to explore. Freedom. So do we also need stimulation, space to explore and be free, and there is no better place than out in nature.

I know some people get sad over trees being cut down and green spaces in cities being removed. I can relate — but I can also show you places where the trees are eager to grow! They are so close together, it’s amazing they have enough soil. I’ve seen trees grow out of cracks in rocks. Don’t fret about the trees — they are still growing lots, all over the place! You just aren’t in the right place to see them.We have a connection to nature that no other being on the planet has, and when that connection is rusty, it shows. We can observe nature, learn from the animals and plants that we see, but most importantly, we can learn to appreciate it. Appreciation is the most important vibe in the universe, and feeling raw, unencumbered appreciation is incredible freeing. It is impossible, I think, to be depressed while watching birds chase each other around the sky. And they sing just for the joy of it! How can we worry or fret when facing the abundance of a mighty river or the soft, green moss of a lush forest? Even in the desert there is an amazing beauty, and life abounds everywhere on this planet.

Except perhaps in big cities. Sure, there are some birds, but it isn’t the same. Cultured outdoor spaces, like golf courses or manicured parks, aren’t the same as nature either. Wild animals simply don’t go into urban areas with no plants, no green. Every city needs some parks, so if you live in a city, find the green space and go sit in it. Even better — get out of the city, and breathe some fresh country air. Get into the wildest (unmanicured or untouched) place you can. Watch the birds fly. Notice the trees sway.Soak in the blue sky and become fascinated by the clouds. Feel the sun warm you and enjoy the breeze on your skin. Listen to frogs, look for critters and remember who you are: a creature, yes, but a creative one, full of imagination and life, intuition and connection, Spirit and intelligence.

I would love to help someone do a formal study of mental health patients spending time in nature, going for walks in the bush or sitting on a river bank. If you know someone who would be interested in studying this, please contact me.

Have you ever wondered “do I have a soul?” What would you think if I told you that you definitely have one, and I know where it is? What if it’s been definitely identified that your soul lives “here,” an organ in your body that you’ve probably never heard of? Would you think me crazy, a nut job? Aww, c’mon, give me a little chance to show I’m a nut job before you declare it so and close your mind! :)

A friend of mine mentioned in conversation the other day that the pineal gland, a tiny gland in the middle of our brains, is a bit of a mystery. It’s been called our “third eye” because it contains rods, cones and fluid similar to what’s in our eyeballs. But it’s in the middle of our skull. Well, I had to research this! It turns out that this is partially true; this type of pineal gland is found in non-mammals, but ours is somewhat less eye-like. In the tuatara, a lizard/reptile native to New Zealand, the young have this third eye, which is covered in translucent skin which thickens as they age. This causes me to wonder what a seeing organ would be doing in the centre of our brains.

Perhaps it isn’t meant to “see” things literally. Maybe it has to do with dreaming. I heard a very interesting thing recently, and it’s changed how I think about sleep and dreaming. Some say that when we sleep, we go back to God… our consciousness sort of “checks in” with Source. This makes so much sense to me! My body is there, just breathing and not doing much else, but my mind and spirit are not there. I’m not conscious, not making my body do things and think ordinary thoughts… instead, thoughts/dreams sort of just happen magically, whole plots and stories going on in our heads. They can be incredibly detailed and evoke strong emotions like fear, happiness, or joy! Some dreams really make sense, and some are so illogical and random — although there’s usually symbolism in them. Some dreams seem to be given to us, like God wants to tell us something. I read a story recently about a time when the Peace River flooded and several people died. One person had a dream of where one man had been swept, and sure enough, they went there and found his body exactly as the dream had shown.

Maybe that’s why we go sort of crazy if we don’t sleep. You’ve heard of this, haven’t you? There was an episode of House about it! :) We have a fundamental need to connect to spirit, and most of us don’t do it when we’re awake. Perhaps if we did, we could stay awake for much longer. Connecting to Spirit through sleep keeps us sane.

So, my attitude about sleep has totally changed. Now I really want to go to sleep; I want to go back to Source every night. (Of course, my family will tell you that I always did enjoy sleep, ever since I was a baby. :)) When I lay down, I know that my spirit’s getting ready for a trip! I don’t know how else to describe it… it’s like something I look forward to now, instead of something I just have to do because my body’s too tired to keep working.

One other point: in my research about the pineal gland, I found out that fluoride is believed to collect in it, calcifying it. So, I’ve been avoiding fluoride. Wouldn’t it be strange if one day they discovered that fluoride causes insomnia? If it messes up your pineal gland and you can’t connect to the Higher world, you can’t sleep!

I have been so busy, getting my new business up and running and ready for the summer… but I’ve learned a few things along the way that I just wanted to quickly share.

You don’t have to be cut-throat to be in business. Perhaps this is no surprise to you, but I think that many of us have the idea (taught to us consciously, or picked up subconsciously through the media) that you have to be shrewd, calculating, cut-throat, and generally unkind to be a businessperson. I have found this to be untrue. Because the businessperson stereotype is strong, I have to remind myself often that kind, generous, organized people are the best businesspeople of all. I think of what I learned at Steve Pavlina‘s Conscious Growth Workshop, about the principle of Oneness — a combination of Truth and Love, and for me, that means working towards a business and solutions that are good for everyone. The overarching goal of my business is to make is possible for people to explore the wilderness and the water that I love!

One of my friends also has this figured out. KB from ktotheb.com is creating amazing videos — and offering them completely free — just to help others and contribute to making the world a more loving place. This is her latest one and after watching it, you really may want to start yoga, not as an exercise, but as a way to connect to your Spirit and improve your intuition! :)

Letting go works better than clamping down. I can occasionally get a little “type A personality” about things, and I’ve noticed that when I do, I tend to clamp down on things, with the attitude that grinding through them is what needs to be done. Grinding through them doesn’t work though — I just get tense, frazzled, stop breathing deeply, and it takes me longer to get the task done, and then I might have to redo it anyways because something in my business model changes. But if I say “this is where I will start” and then start it with an attitude of letting go — letting the inspiration come, letting the work flow out of me — then I am efficient, effective, and I do the best thing. When you have a lot of things to do, it can become paralyzing trying to decide where to start. When I stay open and relaxed, I do the best thing and sure enough, a day or two later, I find out that it’s exactly what I needed to do. Someone will call me and voila! — I’ll have all the answers for them because I did that work yesterday or the day before. It’s pretty cool when that happens!

So I challenge you to think about how you picture businesspeople, and what stereotypes we have. I am a businessperson now; am I heartless and calculating? Only when I have my calculator out. :)

The title of this blog is a little deceiving, I’ll admit. The question of why God doesn’t answer prayer is a flawed question; in fact, all prayer is answered. You may have heard the answer’s either “yes, no, or wait.” I think that’s a little over-simplified! Ernest Holmes says

IF GOD EVER ANSWERED PRAYER, HE ALWAYS ANSWERS PRAYER, since He is “the same yesterday, today and forever.” If there seems to be any failure, it is in man’s ignorance and misunderstanding of the Will and Nature of God.

I’d like to share some things I have read recently that may shed a little more light on prayer. I believe we don’t get the answers we want for a few reasons. This isn’t a complete list or the ultimate treatise on prayer, just a few thoughts of today!

We think God is moody. Some of us have picked up some pretty strange beliefs from our upbringing. One of these is that God is a big, grumpy man up there somewhere, and some days he’s happy to oblige our requests, and some days he’s impossible to please. This is very unfortunate, and this personified view of God makes us think of him more like Grandpa that God. So we start to relate to God in this way, and treat him like an ordinary person. But God is a Force… Spirit… Love. Not a “being” to be pandered to. We work with God to create our reality; if our reality is something we are really unhappy with, we should think about why we made such a situation. We can’t just blame God and call him grumpy.

It would be difficult to believe in a God who cares more for one person than another. There can be no God who is kindly disposed one day and cruel the next; there can be no God who creates us with tendencies and impulses we can scarcely comprehend, and then eternally pushes us when we make mistakes. God is a Universal Presence, an impersonal Observer, a Divine and impartial Giver, forever pouring Himself into His Creation.

- Ernest Holmes, from The Science of Mind

We manipulate God. This activity one comes from point #1 — the belief that God is inconsistent makes us want to manipulate God like a Mighty Parent to get our way. This doesn’t work for so many reasons! I’ve been manipulated a little lately, and I’ve had the opportunity to see it very clearly for what it is — the person manipulating is doing it because he/she thinks they don’t have enough. It comes from a belief in lack, or sometimes injustice. Which leads me to think that we tend to manipulate God when we believe in lack in some aspect of ourselves or our lives. And as long as we believe in lack, or injustice, that’s what we’ll get.

We think God is far away. We plead and plead, pray the same thing over and over, sometimes getting physically louder and louder, when we believe that God is far away. He might not hear us! Nothing could be farther from the truth (forgive the pun)! There is absolutely no distance between you and God; Spirit is Omnipresent. God truly is everywhere, in everything and everyone. Perhaps if you’re repeating yourself and feeling like you aren’t being heard, it’ll help you to think more about God’s omnipresence, or perhaps you are repeating a prayer because you are trying to convince someone other than God — yourself. (That’s a topic for another day!)

So ultimately, if we feel God isn’t answering our prayer, the solution isn’t praying more or louder. It’s not as simple as needing more faith; take a look at your thoughts and attitudes that hinge on your faith. It could be you’re praying for something you already have (or already have the power to have, if only you will recognize it), like praying for happiness. If you get quiet and meditate, the answer will come to you. Rev. Patrick Cameron often says “I don’t know, but something within me does know” and I like that thought!

So I have a cold, again. I used to be so healthy, but the other day I caught another nasty cold. I’ve had 3 in 3 months! I got one while in Beijing (with a fever and everything) and then another one just before New Years. I spent New Year’s Eve at a friend’s cabin, had a great time, but could barely talk. When I felt like saying something, which was approximately every 20 seconds, I had to think really hard to decide if I really needed to say it. It’s a good exercise… most of the time I had to conclude that my clever quip could go un-said. I have less timeless wisdom than I thought! Anyways, it was fun, and in about 6 days I had pretty much kicked that cold to the curb. So, a few weeks ago, we went to Las Vegas, and California, and except for an occasional cough, I felt great. We got back to Alberta, and Darren and I took my niece and nephew to the waterpark at West Edmonton Mall, which was a hoot! We rode the waves in the pool and did some slides, too. I forgot how much fun those slides could be! :) I swallowed a little water — got hit by a wave I wasn’t ready for. Afterwards, we got drawn in to the candy store (if you know West Ed, you know the one) and bought some Jelly Belly jelly beans. They are my favourite! We started munching them immediately — we were so hungry from all the swimming! — and I kept munching them on and off until bed time. I know, not good for me, but they are so flavourful! Fake, artificial flavours, I know, but anyways…

The next day, I woke up with a nasty head-stuffing cold! Man! Initially, I blamed the swimming, and germs from snotty-nosed kids in the pool. Well, I’m the snotty-nosed one now, and I actually want to blame the jelly beans! But, if they are to blame, then I must have been pretty low-immune system/toxic already. Isn’t it amazing how “toxic” we feel when we’re sick?

Darren and I stopped at an organic grocery store and while there, he found a booklet on “The Master Cleanser” by Stanley Burroughs. Besides describing how the combination of lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne makes a good cleanse, Burroughs talks about germs and viruses in a completely different way. He says that they are always present in our bodies and we should be grateful for them because they help us clear toxins from our bodies (he talks a lot about toxins), such as when we get a cold and our body produces a great deal of mucous to get rid of toxins. Interesting idea… I don’t know if it’s entirely true, but it’s something to think about! This line of thinking helped me be less resentful of the cold, seeing it more as my friend, and made me think about the timing of my last 3 colds — after being in Beijing, eating all sots of strange food (not always fresh, food with lots of sauces), after Christmas (which involved a few sweets and goodies, and although I didn’t majorly pig out, it’s more food colouring and sugar than I’m used to), and after Las Vegas. What do you think? Any chance it’s related to toxins… and more than a co-incidence?

And then there’s a whole other idea: that disease is caused by disharmony in our spirits. Now, I’ve meditated and thought about this, and I’m afraid to say that my colds might be related to unkind words. I admit that around those times I may have said some unkind words to Darren — not in arguments exactly, just bits of sarcasm or, well, unkindness. So, while I am doing this cleanse to help my body clean out toxins, I am also going to clean out the last bits of sarcasm, sharpness, or even wittiness that isn’t completely innocent and building others up. I think this will have a wonderful, positive effect on my spirit, much moreso than any dietary change! Think about it — beautiful, uplifting words to make a perfect, healthy throat and lungs. Makes sense to me!

For now, I’m finishing day 2 of the master cleanse, and day 1 of my kind-words-only policy. I’ll keep you posted on how I’m feeling!

In other news, progress continues of my book. The artist, Biliana Savova is working hard on the illustrations, which should be complete next week! This is all so exciting! I am going to be approaching a few people to read it and provide an endorsement for the back cover — a nice little quote on the back to say how great my book is! I need to work on the website… I’ll let you know when it’s ready so you can all go run and check it out! Take care everybody!

As you can tell from my last post, I’ve been thinking a bit about Christmas lately. What makes it good? What makes it frustrating, annoying, or “bad?”

Just a pic I found on the internet. Not the cake the church had!

I used to go to a church that had a Christmas morning service. The preacher encouraged people to just sort of “get out of bed, open your gifts, and show up,” even starting a tradition of bringing kids still in their PJ’s. Nice idea! Certainly more practical than expecting people all decked out in their Sunday best. He would ask all the kids who were there to come to the front of the church, and then we’d all sing happy birthday to Jesus — literally, using the song and everything. After church, there’d be birthday cake, which was mostly for the kids, but I think more than a few adults indulged in a piece! I used to enjoy those times, although it did seem a little superficial. Having no tradition of Christmas of my own to refer to, I had no historical background, so I guess I was a bit more analytical than most.

So I’ve come to one conclusion: I think one thing that’s so annoying about Christmas is that “yay, Jesus is here!” attitude. If Christmas is supposed to be the time we celebrate Jesus’ birth, why is that all we celebrate? If my friends wanted to celebrate my birthday in a big way, I hope they would say more than “hey, you showed up!” Wouldn’t it be nicer if they said “we love you. You are great! You are funny, warm, caring, honest…” appreciating me for who I am.

This reminds me of when people congratulate a man for the birth of a new baby! For Pete’s sake, he did none of the work! He just got to have fun once! The woman did all the work — enduring morning sickness and all the changes to her body, feeling bloated and later just plain heavy, and of course, the big finale, birth! That’s no party! So next time you want to express joy at the arrival of a new baby, focus on the woman! But I digress.

The second part of the Christmas attitudes that baffles me is the “oh, I’m so glad he was born so he could die for me.” Do people think about the baby’s death at the baby shower? Do you talk about that? Hmmm, I don’t. “Geez, he sure is adorable, I hope he doesn’t die in a car crash. That would be tragic.” Or, alternately, if you’re remembering someone’s life, you don’t focus on the very end, do you? “Grandma sure suffered at the end, didn’t she? Oh, she tried to be strong, but those last couple of months were rough. Too bad she couldn’t talk because of the stroke.” Nope, in my family, when we talk of Grandma, we remember her pickled carrots (the best!), her grilled cheese sandwiches, her “get up and go” attitude, her positivity, her independence after Grandpa died, and how she shoveled her own walk — even swept it! — until the last year or so when we convinced her to hire a neighbour boy to do it. We don’t talk about the circumstances of her birth or her death — we talk about all that happened in between.

So, if you’re a Jesus-celebrating person, I hope I’ve given you something to think about. He was awesome. He was so loving to everyone he met. He did miracles, with ease. He had a beautiful spirit. I’d like to be more like him.

But I’m still not really “celebrating” Christmas. Not the way most do. :)

I read this tonight, and it really spoke to me! Thought I’d share it here:

The Spirit within me does not long for anything. It is free, safe, and satisfied. There is no sense of insecurity or of inferiority. I am not seeking to avoid anything. I am conscious of my ability to meet every situation. There is neither depression nor discouragement in my mental outlook on life. I do not look to anything outside myself to give me pleasure, comfort or certainty. I do not long for anything and I am not afraid of anything. My whole inner being is conscious of its unity with God, of its oneness with Spirit. There is no pleasure in intemperance, nor can it offer any suggestion of happiness to me…”

Wow. I wonder how I would treat people I encounter if I said that to myself every morning? Differently, I think. I had a challenging day today, and I wish I had read this in the morning… might have changed the outcome a little (although I was still quite positive and level-headed, despite some schtuff that happened. :) )

Remember I mentioned that this really spoke to me? Well, the paragraph is about intemperance, which I thought meant having a bad temper. But I wasn’t sure, so I thought I’d better look it up, just to be sure. I was wrong — intemperance is an expression for “immoderate indulgence of bodily appetites, specifically, drinking of alcoholic liquors.” Hmmm. A blurb about alcoholism spoke to me? I’m far from being an alcoholic (and not in denial, don’t worry), so what’s going on? Well, I might have other addictions, so… hmmm…

This is the second part of the paragraph — a-ha, it is all about habits!

I now see this habit for exactly what it is, an illusion, which seeks to force me to believe that there is some power outside myself which can give me either pleasure or pain. I do not anticipate such pleasure, nor is there any suggestive power in this habit which can cause me to believe that it has ever, under any circumstances whatsoever, given me pleasure. I am forever free from this thought, and from its effects. I do not will myself free from this habit, rather I perceive this habit is neither person, place nor thing. Having no law to operate, it cannot function. Having no intelligence of its own, it cannot suggest. Having no mind, it cannot will. I am now forever free from the mistaken belief that it was ever a thing of itself. I see it as forever separated from my real self, forever divorced from my imagination, thought and conviction. I am free now.”

That would be powerful against alcoholism! It will work on chocoholism, too, I think.

The paragraph above is actually a prayer treatment. A prayer treatment (or affirmative prayer) is something that you say, out loud, somewhat like a regular prayer, except it is more affirmative and “treats” you for a specific set of false-thinking you are stuck in. It’s a little like self-hypnosis, something you tell yourself so that you can change how you think, but affirmative prayer also lets God/Spirit help you in that area.

This prayer treatment comes from Ernest Holmes’ book The Science of Mind. Now maybe you think this is just too close to scientology or (what you feel are) other “quack” religions, not what you choose to believe. I hope you can see the wisdom in the words even if you don’t quite understand or agree with the source. For a little more info, click here. I will not try to convince or convert you, ever. Believe whatever you want to believe, but be aware that what you choose to believe and think shapes your reality! Aaah, this reminds me of my book! I am essentially finished writing it, although I need a cover design and some artwork done, then I really need to work on publishing it! Next year! :) Seriously, I’ll work on it in January when I have more time.

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

On the way home from work today, I saw a fox. It wasn’t the way I usually see this fox — scampering along the side of the highway, its glowing eyes bouncing up and down in the faint twilight — it was dead. It must have been crossing the road at the same time a vehicle was speeding by… It was right in the middle of the lane, and I had to swerve to avoid running over it. A moment’s hesitation. I hit the brakes and decided to go back and drag it off the road. I didn’t slam on the brakes, so I had a little bit of walking to do. A little time to think.
Why did I swerve? Why didn’t I want to run over the little critter? Is it because I feel an affinity for him, having seen him trotting along the highway so many times? But even then, why go back to drag him off the road? Why not just leave him — it wasn’t like he was large enough to damage another vehicle like a deer or moose would — you have to drag them off the road so another car or truck doesn’t get trashed by hitting the carcass. But this was just a small fox; so what if the next car didn’t swerve, and run over him again? Ah, that’s it — I couldn’t stand the thought of him being run over again and again. Nobody should have to endure that. Which is silly in a way, isn’t it? I mean, he’s dead, and he’s a fox, for pete’s sake, just road kill. Or not. I wanted to have a little funeral for him, make sure his little fox spirit went peacefully on. I can’t stand the thought of ravens eating him… even though it’s the cycle of life, I know. But the cycle of life, nature, doesn’t include cars, so I felt I had to intervene. Why shouldn’t I respect a little fox and wish for him to be buried? To respect people and cherish them but disrespect other living things is hypocrisy. It isn’t living true to what you supposedly believe.
I heard recently that we tend to form beliefs about things we haven’t experienced. That’s why you don’t have beliefs about your pinky finger, or your front door. You experience them all the time, and so no beliefs are needed. But with many non-physical things, like philosophies & religions, we make up beliefs to try and make something more real, to give us something to grab on to. (If you have a lot of strongly held beliefs, it could be because those things aren’t very real to you.) Which is why we have so many beliefs about death — it’s the ultimate thing we can’t really experience.

“Well, at least he didn’t suffer,” some people say at some funerals.
“Oh, death must have been a welcome relief,” is also commonly said at others.
“We know he’s gone on to a better place,” might be heard, or
“If only we knew if he had accepted Jesus.”
“At least you still have two children left.” Can you believe people actually say that!?!
Most, if not all, of the above statements are based on beliefs, and when said to the grieving family, they are complete fluff and even hurtful. Does the mourning husband feel “a welcome relief” that his wife is gone? Maybe, but maybe not. He’s feeling an intense loss, probably not relief. And let’s not yatter on about the person’s eternal condition — heaven and such — while ignoring the condition of those in front of us. Instead, offer your sincerest condolences and help to the survivors.

A couple of months back, I took a death notification course. Many things that you might think to say are not helpful and can be quite harmful to the people who’ve just lost their loved one. The training was about sudden deaths, but I don’t think it’s very different with inevitable deaths. The most important things to remember, should you ever be involved in a death notification is to go in person, with no agenda, (i.e. no deadlines about how long to be there) and be with the mourning person. You don’t have to say much, just be with them. They might have questions about how their loved one died, and if you can answer them, do so factually. Accept all emotions that come out — theirs and yours — without judging them. There’s so much more to doing a death notification, which I won’t go into now, but if you have a chance to take a course, do it. The one I took was offered by MADD Canada, and was presented by a retired police officer. If you’re interested, I could do a whole blog about this (leave a comment).

The second brush with death was with my husband last night. I don’t think he was actually close to death, but I was very close to calling 9-1-1, and that’s a stressful situation to be in. He was having extreme pain, having difficulty breathing, and I couldn’t quite rule out a heart attack (his father died of a heart attack several years ago), so I was going to call for an ambulance. However, the pain passed and the cause was not heart-related, but in the heat of the moment, with the shrieks of pain he was making, I didn’t know what was happening.
As a result, we had a sweet time of appreciating each other last night — I was glad he was okay, he was glad I had helped him through it (although I didn’t do much). There’s nothing like a brush with death to bring two people closer, and it’s a bit of a shame that’s what it takes.

Why do we fuss so much with how we die? If a person died as road kill, it would be unspeakably awful! We talk a lot about dying with dignity, dying with loved ones around, having some control over pain medication when death is near. Why don’t we concern ourselves as much with how we live? Speak of living with dignity and integrity, having loved ones around, not complaining about a bit of pain we have as part of life. We waste so much energy complaining! I wonder what would happen if we replaced every complaint with a thought focused on gratitude and love?

It just hit me one day, not long ago — I am a pipe! I’m not a valve or a pump, I’m just a simple conduit!

I don’t need to work really hard, or pray really fervently (pump). It’s not up to me to decide who will receive a blessing today (turn on or off like a valve). I am just a pipe — always in the right place at the right time to do exactly whatever is in front of me, whatever will bless or encourage or lift up someone around me. There’s no struggling, no thinking “oh, I’ve got to try really hard to be God’s special servant today;” I am not a pump for Spirit. There’s no deciding who to be kind to, and no “turning on the power;” I am not a valve. I am a conduit and all I have to do is be wherever I am, be conscious and alert. I suppose I wouldn’t be any good if I got clogged, or sprung a leak… “Getting clogged” would be trying to keep God’s blessings all to myself, as if there aren’t enough to go around. “Springing a leak” would be letting Spirit, or blessings, go in a direction other than the one I’m pointed in… like trying to be somewhere I’m not, wishing I were somewhere else right now (we all do that sometimes, don’t we?). But it’s not a serious problem because it’s not like I’m going to waste blessings — there’s always plenty more where that came from!

And the other cool thing: everything is a blessing! It’s not like “being a blessing to someone” is hard! It’s just being a little caring, kind, or thoughtful. Smiling when someone says good morning, and even letting someone be kind to me, or compliment me, graciously accepting it and absorbing it. Have you ever tried to give someone a gift who refuses to accept it? Not much fun in that, is there?

And believing that I am always in the right place at the right time takes so much pressure off! I don’t need to rush to be here or there, I am already exactly where I am supposed to be!

So that’s all! In the beautiful fountain of life, I am a pipe, not a pump or a valve. I simply conduct the good that the Universe wants to pour out on everyone!

"Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use." - Earl Nightingale